A settlement has been reached in a four-year-old lawsuit brought by a pet supply firm at Hamilton Place Mall against the city and the McKamey Animal Trust.
The attorneys reached the agreement without mediation or arbitration, it was stated.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. If the city has liability, that would have to be approved by the City Council at an open meeting.
Other defendants were then-McKamey director Karen Walsh and employees Marvin Nicholson, Jr. and Paula Hurn.
The case had been set to go to trial in early 2013 when an appeal was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals on a decision by Judge Curtis Collier that the employees were not entitled to the protection of governmental immunity.
Mayor Ron Littlefield had been listed as one of the witnesses at the trial.
The 29-page complaint by United Pet Care said McKamey illegally took the permit for its store at Hamilton Place Mall and also illegally confiscated most of the animals at the store. It says McKamey was acting with ulterior motives when it took 82 animals and the company business records in a raid June 15, 2010. The permit was eventually returned to the store along with most of the animals.
City Judge Sherry Paty stepped down from the case, saying Mayor Littlefield had improperly interfered. An outside judge later dismissed the case, citing "double jeopardy."
The suit asked $5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Judge Collier threw out the punitive damage claim against employees Nicholson and Hurn.